Over the Falls
by J. E. Green
Summary: It's Dipper's return to Gravity Falls. Obviously it isn't going to be normal, but he didn't expect to meet a boy in the wilderness on the verge of death. Now united, forces of past evil strive to drive them apart.
1. chapter 1

A return to Gravity Falls for summer vacation was of no alarm to Dipper and Mabel Pines. Well, perhaps a little, given with what happened last time...

Ah, yes. The rise and fall of a powerful demon by the name of Bill Cipher. Twins Dipper and Mabel returned to the home of Soos, dubbed the Mystery Shack, which had once been owned by their Great Uncle Stan. While Gravity Falls and the Mystery Shack were still plagued by swarms of weirdness and monsters, the stronger of them were gone.

No demons, no inter dimensional beings, and no gnome people. Although those could actually be dealt with...

Dipper placed his feet in the ground again, swept with the feeling that he was home. It would suck not having either of his Great Uncles, Stanford or Stanley, here (they were still on a boat or something), but it was still good to be-

"Hey, dork."

Dipper let out a startled scream and turned to face a tall red-haired teen. His heart led out a this as he recognized the figure as Wendy, last summer's crush and a great friend of his. That's what she was now - a friend. It took an entire school year to get over her, but it totally paid off. "Hey Wendy!" Standing here in front of him, he felt no traces of his crush.

She chuckled. "Soos told me you were coming. I'm really surprised that your parents let you come without Stan being here."

He scratched his neck nervously. "Uh, yeah. They don't know. Stan set it up, too, so it's cool."

"Oh, rebel! Dude, you're a lot taller since last time, too. Guess you're technically a teen now, huh? Oh, and Mabel, too..."

He glanced around to see why his sister wasn't joining in the greeting. True to her nature, she had wondered off to follow a butterfly whispering something about sparkles. Waddles the pig was at her side, chewing on a flower much like the one that the bug had landed on.

He caught himself in a smile. Sure, getting settled for the summer was going to be normal enough, but soon enough, things would start getting weird. They always did around here.

Speaking of which...

"Dudes, you made it!" Soos stood, arms outstretched. His girlfriend was at his side. "Better get you guys in. Bye Wendy."

She saluted him and started walking off.

Dipper adjusted his backpack and waited for his sister to catch up. There was a full day ahead, and who knows what would happen? Excited, the two trotted side-by-side into the Mystery Shack to get unpacked and start an adventure.

It was there again.

Heavy breathing, practically working snarling into each drastic pant. Low. Heavy. The monster padded back and forth, its footsteps mocking the two boys hiding under thick vegetation.

Wirt crouched low to the ground. Greg was at his side. As always when they got themselves into these situations, the smaller brother did not understand the full extent of the danger that they were in, and anxiety had knocked the breath from the older one's lungs. The things paced closer now, its growls becoming louder and louder.

Wirt bit his lip. He wanted to peek out, to check and see when to move, but he had to trust his other senses. If the monster saw him peeking, they'd be done for.

"What should we do?" Greg at least had the sense enough to keep his voice down.

A single glance made way towards him as Wirt tried to control his breath. In his mind, his little brother was needing torn apart by the thing's massive jaws, just shreds of skin and bones on the ground. He hardly had to think of himself in the same fate to me motivated. After all, that was what big brothers are for: to keep their family safe.

Oxygen control was a struggle, an all the same a must. Wirt took the smaller boy by his hand and crouched to the high end of the bush. "Greg... When I throw this rock, run over there to that big rock, okay?"

"Yeah. What are you gonna do?"

Too late to answer. Sensing that it was dangerous close, Wort dashed to the other end of the bush and tossed the rock in the opposite direction. The monster roared and pounced back to where he stood. The last thing he remembered was glancing back to see that Greg had made it to the rock and was running further off now. He'd be safe.

But Wirt wouldn't be.

The beast curled its head over the bush and wasted no time closing its chops over his neck. Dizzy with pain, the boy could hardly struggle before darkness came over him in waves...

Unpacking wasn't really done, but Dipper didn't care. He'd just thrown his bags into the bed and ran right out of the building. His stuff could wait, he'd been fantasizing about this moment for nearly a year!

Mabel had decided to stay behind - her friends were coming over, and Waddles "needed a makeover". She'd catch up, but later. Maybe tomorrow, maybe sooner. He'd thought that their first adventure after return would be together, but it was okay.

He felt like this one would be special.

The forest seemed to be practically inviting him in. Backpack on his shoulders and grin on his face, the boy walked into the woods. His hands gripped the straps on his backpack. The hot forest air brushed his lungs, and he listened for the sign of something out of the ordinary.

The tweeting of birds, the rush of wind. The crack of leaves under feet. The calls of deer and the growls of a monster. Something scampering up a...

The growls of a monster.

Dipper's pupils shrunk, the telltale sign of excitement. His own journal out and ready, a camera tucked away into his arm pit, he rushed forward to perhaps catch a glimpse of the creature and study it. Others would plan to fight this monster, but he was the nerd who would find out its weaknesses and strengths. Sure, it was probably already in Stan's journal, but that wasn't the point... If he wrote it down himself, it would be all the more special.

He was in his right mind when he though that this adventure would be different. Instead of a monster prowling it's out territory waiting to be investigated, it was thrashing at something in a bush.

At first it crossed his mind that it could be attacking a squirrel, but then the screech sounded out - that of a human.

Not sure why, his fear enacted a fight response. Normally at the sight of a bully or, in this case, a monster, he'd run. Maybe it was because there could be a person there, maybe it was for a different reason. Either way, his feet were disconnected from his brain, and ran nearly on their own toward the sound. He arrived far enough to successfully throw something, but not close enough to be detected. At the same time, the best lifted his head with a limp body in its jaws.

Yep, definitely a person. Straight, brown hair fell in a mess over his face, and he fought to keep his eyes open.

"Oh, what do I do?!" Dipper bit his lip and pulled a book out of his backpack. Before he could throw it, the creature dropped the boy, whimpered, and scampered off. Anti-climatic, but that didn't matter now. What mattered was the boy.

Dipper ran for him. His knees hit the ground hard, and he fought to keep his heart down his throat. The boy's breathing was shallow, his pulse like lightning in his veins. That was a good sign; the oxygen just needed to regulate enough for him to be conscious. Of course, it was still probable he'd only stay that way for maybe a minute and then fall in with what his lungs lacked...

"Hey, can you hear me?" Dipper touched the stranger's cheek, feeling something warm flood his fingers. He jerked back in shock, then watched as a cough racked the boy's body. "Hey?"

"G-Greg? Sara?" His slanted eyes closed once again, and he struggled harder to keep awake. Not only was his breathing a problem, but he'd hit his head really hard when the monster dropped him...

"I'll bring you home..." The stranger was soon over his shoulders, weight enough to pop his back.

He wasn't sure why the monster had ran. Perhaps it was that it sensed more humans had come to back it up, or it had other things to do.

One thing was certain.

The reason the monster had ran was sitting in the shadows, watching with a chuckle as the boys went off.


	2. chapter 2

/N: Hey, if there's anyone active there could you leave a review or message me or something? I feel like I'm kind of alone on here... And I would love to make a few friends. _

The strange boy was lied on the couch as Dipper sat at his side. He kept his head in a book, pretending not to be worried about the person on the couch. The words in front of his met his eyes but not his brain; he could hardly see the pages through the fog of worry. The questions were ceaseless: Is he new to town? Is he okay? Who are Greg and Sara? Why was he out there?

He didn't bother hiding in the book anymore. With a sigh, he clamped it shut and glanced over his shoulder at the stranger. The guy was average-looking, lanky and pale. His hair was brown, but darker than Dipper's own. Dark circles creased his eyes. He must have really lived a stressful life at some point, and Dipper felt for him, given what he'd been through.

But it wasn't like this guy had fought a demon or anything, right?

Suddenly, he sat upright and sputtered into a blind series of hacking coughs. Dipper leapt back in shock, only to return to the stranger's side to comfort him.

"Greg?" he asked, glancing with eyes full of fear, "Greg, is he okay? O-oh man..." He pushed himself off the couch just to fall back onto it, clasping his forehead as an agonizing pain came over it.

"Woah, woah, calm down, dude!" Dipper kneeled at his side. Mabel and Soos were already coming into the room - Waddles followed with Candy and Grenda behind him. "Help us out here. Who's Greg?"

"Who's Greg?"

"He's my brother!" Wirt hardly had the time to be shocked at his surroundings or question who these strange people were. The fear he had in not knowing what had happened to his little sibling had muffled and anxiety otherwise.

And Sara... She was gone, too, but not without inflicting her own wounds. The girl had run off once the monster had first shown up, but not without making sure it knew the boys were there. Wirt's heart was still sore from the experience. To think, he'd though her nice once! This betrayal... Was unforgivable...

Shaking his head, Wirt glanced around the room. A tall, well-rounded man stood beside a shorter girl with braces and a sweater. There was a pig (yeah that was pretty odd) with two girls hiding behind it. Not to mention the one closest to him - the boy. He'd only glanced over the others, but this one caught his attention. His hair was a honey-caramel color ruffled on top of a face as pale and smooth as eggshell. He looked like one of hose types unaware of their own beauty... His eyes were wide and innocent, two pearls reflecting not only their own light, but being a mirror to the beauty behind those eyes into the mind...

Nevermind that now. More important matter were at hand!

With another shake, Wirt grunted in frustration and met them all. "Did you see a little boy? Brown hair, k-kind of pudgy?"

"Whaaaat?" The girl spoke up. "There's a kid that came in here earlier scared and he helped with Waddles' make-up!"

"Mabel," the handsome one said, "why didn't you tell us?"

She shrugged, and the pig snorted.

"So..." Wirt sat upright, heart pounding in his throat. "My brother's okay?"

"Oodley doodley!" Whatever that meant.

"What were you two doing out there?" The boy guestured to the door, which Wort guessed lead back into the woods.

"Sara, my brother, and I were exploring..." He held his forehead again; a searing migraine spiked up into his brain. "Sara left us. That thing started chasing us... We don't even know where we are..." A wry smile. "We tend to get lost."

"Maybe you dudes could, I dunno, get a Coke or something?" The older one suggested. "And, like, just rest for a while, I guess? I dunno. I haven't ever been in this situation."

"We're in Gravity Falls, Oregon." The boy smiled and offered his hand. Anxiety buzzed behind an outgoing face. "I'm Dipper. You?"

"Wirt. Thanks..." Oregon? That was REALLY far from home... Although, not as far as the Unknown had been, surely.

Sure enough, Greg came running down the staircase. "Wirt! Wirt!" The little boy held out his frog, a huge grin on his face. "Jason Funkerburker was right! This house had nice people in it! That one brought you home and took care of you." He pointed at Dipper.

The boy scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I don't know about taking care of you. I just, uh, put you on the couch..." He chuckled, then gave a shy look.

Wirt felt a block of something in his throat and thought, My God, that's adorable. Much unlike himself mentally, he turned gravely to him and asked, "How did you fight it?"

"Huh?" Dipper went from embarrassed to dazed.

"The monster. Did you kill it or something? That would make sense but..."

"Oh, no." He shook his head. "It ran off... By the way, you never told me how far you were from home?"

Ran off? The monster? Impossible, but if he said so, it was better not to question it than to evoke the wrath of someone who could so easily scare away a beast. "It doesn't matter. We're here for a reason, I guess, so it's better not to fight what can't be fought."

Dipper thought for a moment, then pulled something out of his backpack. "Coke?"

The woods was not a welcoming place for Sara, wondering with a throbbing heart and sweaty palms. A hoodie perched over her head, loose black hair went loose over her shoulders, and she had the feeling she was being watched... Not only so, but guilt had devoured her as an endless loop of her actions played.

Feeding the boys to the monster? Horrible, absolutely horrible... What kind of reaction was that to panic? It was fight or flight, not fight or feed your friends.

"Aw, scared much?"

She choked back a squeak. "Wirt? Greg?" It certainly didn't sound like it.

"No, someone much better! Someone who can make you forget your guilt..." The voice was louder the further she wandered. It didn't seem a human voice, as if it was being spoken into a fan or straight from the chest of a fluent robot.

"That's insane..."

"Is it? Maybe if we make a deal, then you'll see."

It appeared before her as a triangular creature, attempting a gentleman look with his top hat and cane. Hand, outstretched and black, glowed in blue. Behind the strange figure was something frightening, like a hybrid between a man and a tree. This couldn't be real, could it?

If it was fake, what would it hurt?

Sara, feeling brave for the first time since this stupid forest adventure, exhaled and took his hand. "Deal."


End file.
